Housed inside two of the original sheds, The Fastest on Earth exhibition recalls the countless speed records achieved at Brooklands and pays tribute to the Brooklands drivers, riders, mechanics and engineers who claimed new records across the world.
Begin your journey inside the Racing Lockups, where we tell the story of the quest for speed, efficiency, and safety in the Raleigh Cycle Exhibition. The story continues in the ERA Shed, the last workshop to be built at Brooklands. In here you will discover the Brooklands Motorcycle collection and some of the greatest Brooklands cars to have raced on the track.
Your journey continues through the racing legends of Brooklands taking you on to the Campbell Shed, the Brooklands base for the World Land Speed Record holder Malcolm Campbell until 1935.
Plan your visit
Motoring Village, Entry via Racing Lock-ups
Museum Map >
Step free access
Accessibility at the Museum >
DISCOVER THE STORIES
Tales from Brooklands:
John Rhodes Cobb
John Cobb was born just fourteen years after Karl Benz registered the first patent for a motor car and just eight years before the Brooklands Motor Course was opened.
He was born in Esher, just six miles from Brooklands. It seems that he was destined to live a life influenced by the motor car and motorsport.
DISCOVER THE STORIES
Tales from Brooklands:
Reid Railton
When you visit Brooklands Museum, you will see the name Railton cropping up on different occasions. The real stand-out example is the Napier-Railton racing car, a huge, shiny silver, single-seater racing and record-breaking vehicle that holds the Brooklands Motor Course lap speed record and always will. Another is a large, but remarkably light and extremely fast, red luxury sports car, the Railton Terraplane. These are just two of the many world-beating engineering projects whose success was derived from Railton’s knowledge and skills.
DISCOVER THE STORIES
Tales from Brooklands:
Sir Malcolm Campbell
Malcolm Campbell was born on 11 March 1885 in Chislehurst, Kent. He was the son of a diamond merchant and after leaving school he went to Germany to learn the diamond trade. While there he became interested in motorcycles and motor racing. He was married three times: to Marjorie Dagmar Knott (1913–1915), to Dorothy Evelyn Whittall (1920– 1940), and to Betty Nicory (1945-1948). He had two children: Donald and Jean, both with Dorothy.
DISCOVER THE STORIES
Tales from Brooklands:
Kay Petre
Kathleen Coad Defries was born in Canada in May 1903. Her parents were Robert Leo Defries KC, a barrister in Toronto, and his wife, Annie Gray. She went to school in England and returned to Canada in her twenties. In 1924 she married Langlois de Lefroy but was soon widowed and returned to England. Here she met and married Henry Aloysius Petre in 1929.
DISCOVER THE STORIES
Tales from Brooklands:
Florence Blenkiron
Florence Blenkiron was a most remarkable woman. Not only was she the first woman to gain a Gold Star for exceeding 100mph for a lap of the Brooklands Circuit, in 1934, but with Theresa Wallach, she rode a motorcycle and sidecar from London to Cape Town in 1935. While her later story might not be so spectacular it nevertheless strengthens the claim that she was one of the great unsung heroines of her time.
